TIS A YOUNG SWASHBUCKLING WEE LAD I FEEL AGAIN IT TIS

 AFTERNOON WALK

Some days it's just kinda okay to stay in, and after a short drive into Bayfield for Pheebs and I that is just what we did.  It was a cold gusting wind outside this morning and how nice to be home again and walk into a warm comfy cozy house.  And feel good to be there.  We didn't have to rush off anywhere and we didn't have any appointments to attend.  It was a good day to crank up our sunroom's gas-operated Vermont Castings stove and comfortably sink into my recliner with a cup of hot coffee and a good book in hand.

 IN OUR BACK YARD

I did slip out briefly to see if the Jeep would start but it wouldn't.  Turned the key, no clicking or clacking sounds but all the dash lights lit up.  I figured it was a good time to see if our new Moto-Master battery booster would work. Turned the key and got dash lights, but dead silence again.  I next tried jumpstarting the Jeep with regular jumper cables and the Subaru.  Same results, nothing:((((

Under a heavy overcast sky (no rain) and gusty winds, Pheebs coaxed me out for an afternoon walk over by the Park's pond. 

I recently finished my latest book, Moonfleet.  What a riveting page-turning tale this book was.  I sort of vaguely remembered something about an old English church with a large hidden vault underneath it when I think we studied this book in a high school literature class, but the strange thing is that there wasn't one single thing in the whole book I remembered from first reading it over sixty years ago.  Nothing.  But that's okay because I thoroughly enjoyed the story all over again as I must have the first time.  I loved J. Meade Falkner's English prose and writing style.  A true late 19th-century English storyteller.  I enjoyed the book so much that I decided for my next book I would remain in the same era and in the same country.  After some searching, I settled upon another novel and chose, The Secret Garden by author Francis Hodgson Burnett.  I've just started this book and I am already enthralled with what I am reading.  Again, I like the old English writing style.  It was about a year ago now that I also took a break from my usual heavier reading fare and comfortably settled in to read some books of fanciful imagination, whimsical adventure, page-turning suspense, intrigue, and touches of magic and mystical happenings. And it was all sprinkled in here and there to keep me enjoyably captivated.  These were the kinds of books I enjoyed so much as a boy and they are the books I now choose to read for the next little while here in my latter years.  Tis a young swashbuckling wee lad I feel again it tis:))        

LOOKING FORWARD TO MY NEXT BACKYARD CAMPFIRE IN THE SPRING

Al's Music Box:)) Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles from their 1966 album, 'Revolver'.  Paul McCartney said, The first few bars just came to me. And I got this name in my head – "Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been." I don't know why ... I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name "Father McCartney" came to me – and "all the lonely people". But I thought people would think it was supposed to be my dad, sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie.   The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney with significant lyrical contributions from John Lennon.  McCartney said that the idea to call his character "Eleanor" was possibly because of Eleanor Bron, the actress who starred with the Beatles in their 1965 film Help. "Rigby" came from the name of a store in Bristol, Rigby & Evens Ltd. McCartney noticed the store while visiting his girlfriend of the time, actress Jane Asher.  In an October 2021 article in The New Yorker, McCartney wrote that his inspiration for "Eleanor Rigby" was an old lady who lived alone and whom he got to know very well. He would go shopping for her and sit in her kitchen listening to stories and her crystal radio set. McCartney said, "just hearing her stories enriched my soul and influenced the songs I would later write."

GROANER'S CORNER:((  My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned. I couldn't concentrate. Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the axe. After that, I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it - mainly because it was a sew-sew job. Next, I tried working in a muffler factory, but that was too exhausting. Then, I tried to be a chef - figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn't have the thyme. I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it I couldn't cut the mustard. My best job was a musician, but eventually I found I wasn't noteworthy. I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn't have any patience. Next, was a job in a shoe factory. I tried but I just didn't fit in. I became a professional fisherman but discovered that I couldn't live on my net income. I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining. So then I got a job in a workout center, but they said I wasn't fit for the job. After many years of trying to find steady work, I finally got a job as a historian - until I realized there was no future in it. My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind. So, I tried retirement and found that I'm perfect for the job!

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Tim: I wish I had the money to buy an elephant.

Tom: What do you want with an elephant?

Tim: Nothing, I just want the money.

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